Posted by
michael
on from the soon-to-be-illegal dept.
Tauvix writes: "AnandTech is running an in-depth article on the hardware of the X-box as compared to a PC, the PS2, and the Gamecube. There's some very interesting suprises and commentary on what was done right, and what could have been done better."
what's really needed is the investment into making a game that makes use of all the new geforce 3 hardware. having console games made for the xbox (then probably being very easily ported to windows) will mean a larger amount of investment in pc games in the long run.
Re:what's needed
by
I.T.R.A.R.K.
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Ahh, but would such a game even run well on the X-box?
Optimizing games for existing effects is one thing, but writing your game to take advantage of new effects on top of old ones takes a lot of dedication on the part of the cpu. What the gpu can handle, the cpu might not be able to. Especially if it is an Intel Celeron equivilant.
I definitely agree that new games need to be written to take advantage of the on-board memory. Remember the days of Quake 1 where the default game would allocate a small amount of ram to the game (Wasn't it 16? I don't recall) when you had 128+ sitting around doing nothing?(I did, at least). It was only with command line paramaters that I could allocate more.
I don't think X-box users have the convenience of a command line. But, since the X-box uses a unified memory architecture, this shouldn't even be an issue and I'm just rambling. Late night benders tend to do that to me.
In any event, this is one example of how PC-native games probably won't run well on the X-box unless they're ported specifically. There's no sense in having all that extra hardware sitting around if no one's going to use it.
--
"Adequacy.org: Where congenital stupidity is not an option, but a requirement."
Who says you can't read/write the drive image?
by
GreatUnknown
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· Score: 2, Insightful
From the article:
What would help however is a faster hard drive, but there are numerous problems associated with performing a hard drive upgrade:
1) Getting the Xbox image onto the hard drive. Without modification, no OS will let you access the Xbox hard drive making it very difficult to create a ghosted image of the drive
ummm... dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd anyone? (or whatever the device names to be when you plug them in on your system).
Why does the OS have to understand the data to read/write it raw from one disk to the other?
I find it hard to believe the XBox you mention caught on fire... And please, if it's serious, do you have any evidence? I can hardly believe microsoft would knowingly kill their reputation by selling dangerous equipment.
M$ miscalculating game strategy?
by
HiredMan
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Here's something I'm unsure of - if standardesque DirectX software is used to program the XBox then shouldn't porting those games to a Windows computer be fairly easy? I know the XBox has nifty optimizations - especially for 3D - but isn't just about ANY decent gaming computer sold today able to match the specialty hardware because it has a processor that's twice as fast and a video card that can be repeatedly upgraded?
The reason I ask is because most hardcore gamers (obviously the core XBox market) probably have a gaming computer and if I can get Halo or DOA3 or TitleX for my computer (which has better graphics than my TV set and I'm used to playing games on) why would I buy an XBox?
Why wouldn't I would buy a PS2 or a gamecube if I buy a console so I could play games NOT available on my computer....
This being said is M$ going to have to embargo the good XBox games to "XBox only" to keep the Windows game market from eating their own lunch?
If M$ doesn't have a big backlog of cool XBox only games would seem that they might be limiting their market to "gamers who can't afford a good gaming computer" and those who have enough money to buy everything out there. I don't think this is a broad enough market to support an entire platform.
Anand wrote a very good article with plenty of meat and potatos to satisfy but I think he is sort of missing a very important point. He mentions in the article how the PS2 falls behind the XBox in some way because it has less fancy graphics and sound capabilities. SONY HAS SOLD NEARLY 20 MILLION OF THE FUCKING THINGS AND HAS HUNDREDS OF GAMES AVAILABLE FOR IT. I think Anand needs to reassess his position on the PS2. It is still selling for 300$ because people are still eating it up at this price. The XBox may be able to do a bajillion polygons per second but it still doesn't have the game franchises that make bank on console systems. Nintendo's also in a good position because they are destined to get the little kids who want to play Pokemon until their eyes fall out. Who cares if Pikachu's only rendered with half a million fucking surfaces, people want to play the games not write a master's thesis on the theoretical graphic capabilities of a computer system. I bought a GC on my way home from Louisiana and since I've been home my brother's been playing Rogue Squadron almst non-stop. He hasn't yet complained about the lack of theoretical polygons the GC can render yet and I sort of doubt he will. The XBox will only truely contend with Nintendo and Sony when it has games in high demand. I thought it's launch titles were pretty crappy compared to the GC's though a little better than what the PS2 originally offered. Besides that I got a GC and two games for the price of either the PS2 or XBox.
-- I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Realtors say "location,location,location"
by
f00zbll
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The equivalent saying in console would have to be "games, games, games". If you ain't got great games that are addictive as cocaine, you can forget about making a dent in the business. Just because microsoft can make a few PC games, it hardley has a great track record compared to the real heavy weights.
Contrary to what Microsoft might have thought early in the beginning, they are now realizing how different console games are. It's not just the controller is different or that keyboards are missing. It's a totally different mind set. But then again, ask any experienced game developer. They'll clear that cob web from your eyes with a good slap in the face.
Slashdot Mirror
what's really needed is the investment into making a game that makes use of all the new geforce 3 hardware. having console games made for the xbox (then probably being very easily ported to windows) will mean a larger amount of investment in pc games in the long run.
(also possibly a monopoly on the games market)
free (as in mp3s) electronic music
ummm... dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdd anyone? (or whatever the device names to be when you plug them in on your system).
Why does the OS have to understand the data to read/write it raw from one disk to the other?
I find it hard to believe the XBox you mention caught on fire... And please, if it's serious, do you have any evidence? I can hardly believe microsoft would knowingly kill their reputation by selling dangerous equipment.
Here's something I'm unsure of - if standardesque DirectX software is used to program the XBox then shouldn't porting those games to a Windows computer be fairly easy? I know the XBox has nifty optimizations - especially for 3D - but isn't just about ANY decent gaming computer sold today able to match the specialty hardware because it has a processor that's twice as fast and a video card that can be repeatedly upgraded?
The reason I ask is because most hardcore gamers (obviously the core XBox market) probably have a gaming computer and if I can get Halo or DOA3 or TitleX for my computer (which has better graphics than my TV set and I'm used to playing games on) why would I buy an XBox?
Why wouldn't I would buy a PS2 or a gamecube if I buy a console so I could play games NOT available on my computer....
This being said is M$ going to have to embargo the good XBox games to "XBox only" to keep the Windows game market from eating their own lunch?
If M$ doesn't have a big backlog of cool XBox only games would seem that they might be limiting their market to "gamers who can't afford a good gaming computer" and those who have enough money to buy everything out there. I don't think this is a broad enough market to support an entire platform.
=tkk
Bill Gates - Creationist?!?
Anand wrote a very good article with plenty of meat and potatos to satisfy but I think he is sort of missing a very important point. He mentions in the article how the PS2 falls behind the XBox in some way because it has less fancy graphics and sound capabilities. SONY HAS SOLD NEARLY 20 MILLION OF THE FUCKING THINGS AND HAS HUNDREDS OF GAMES AVAILABLE FOR IT. I think Anand needs to reassess his position on the PS2. It is still selling for 300$ because people are still eating it up at this price. The XBox may be able to do a bajillion polygons per second but it still doesn't have the game franchises that make bank on console systems. Nintendo's also in a good position because they are destined to get the little kids who want to play Pokemon until their eyes fall out. Who cares if Pikachu's only rendered with half a million fucking surfaces, people want to play the games not write a master's thesis on the theoretical graphic capabilities of a computer system. I bought a GC on my way home from Louisiana and since I've been home my brother's been playing Rogue Squadron almst non-stop. He hasn't yet complained about the lack of theoretical polygons the GC can render yet and I sort of doubt he will. The XBox will only truely contend with Nintendo and Sony when it has games in high demand. I thought it's launch titles were pretty crappy compared to the GC's though a little better than what the PS2 originally offered. Besides that I got a GC and two games for the price of either the PS2 or XBox.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Contrary to what Microsoft might have thought early in the beginning, they are now realizing how different console games are. It's not just the controller is different or that keyboards are missing. It's a totally different mind set. But then again, ask any experienced game developer. They'll clear that cob web from your eyes with a good slap in the face.